The fine art of fielding in the T20 age

It is the great intangible in cricket. You can't put a number to it but if you mess up, you will pay a heavy price

There’s something about the cricket fields of Australia that inspires fielders. If you are a supreme athlete, it is the place to put on a show. It was at The Gabba in Brisbane, that Jonty Rhodes gained cricket immortality by flying into the stumps, almost like a bird, to run out Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Virat Kohli took a one-handed screamer and executed a brilliant run-out in the warm-up match against Australia (Twitter)

Before Jonty, the Indian cricket buffs remember waking up to Channel Nine’s eye-catching coverage where Ravi Shastri would be giving the ball a long chase before launching into his slides to cut the ball off, inches from the boundary boards. Then, the likes of Dean Jones became cult figures by pulling off those blinders inside the ring.

Fielding in Australia can simply turn into a spectacle to be enjoyed like no other place. We don’t need to go any further than India’s first warm-up game this week against the hosts, when everyone was left marvelling at Virat Kohli’s brilliance. He pulled off a stunning run-out of Tim David with a direct hit with just one stump visible. It was followed with a spectacular leap to pull off a one-handed catch at the fence off a powerful Pat Cummins hit in the final over to tilt the game in India’s favour.

“It is a fabulous country to field. The grounds are beautiful," says former India fielding coach R Sridhar, credited with turning Virat Kohli & Co into a fine fielding unit, while warning about the big outfields. "Obviously if you are not a quick mover you will be found out, there are a lot of vacant spaces on the ground."

“We have good memories of fielding in Australia. I remember against Pakistan in the 2015 World Cup (50 overs), all 10 dismissals were catches. In the next match against South Africa, we actually out-fielded South Africa. We got AB de Villiers and David Miller run-out and we took some brilliant catches, to win that game in Melbourne in front of a 100,000 crowd," says Sridhar, who was India team's fielding coach from 2014 till the 2021 T20 World Cup.

“The key thing you have to keep in mind while fielding in Australia is if you are playing a day game then it can be very, very bright sometimes, especially in the western part of the country. The bounce in the pitches will keep you in the game all the time. You have to also keep in mind the bounce means the ball will travel a little bit more. Also... different dimensions of the ground. Adelaide Oval is shorter on the sides so the square fielders have to be a little bit quicker -- those who can dive well, those reaction time is good. The fielders who are on the straight boundaries have to have stronger arms and (need to be) stronger athletes because they are very big, and so is Canberra. On grounds like Brisbane and Melbourne, you will notice the side boundaries are very big, the straight boundaries are shorter, so your better fielders should be on the side. These are the things which we need to take into consideration.”

BEST MEN FOR THE JOB

Sridhar gave the example of India's warm-up game against Australia as to who should be doing which job for the team. “Virat has started stunningly; when it was needed, he was on the long-on boundary which is a high-traffic zone in a T20 game. Then he was in the circle for a relatively newer batter, saving the one. You will back someone like Hardik Pandya to create some pieces of brilliance throughout the tournament, then there are the others who can back it up, someone like KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav, with someone like Dinesh strong behind the stumps, it bodes well for the team.”

"I am very excited and looking forward to the India and Pakistan match, fielding is one area where we can surely outplay them, going with the standards we set in the last 10 India-Pakistan encounters in ICC tournaments which I was part of, we have always out-fielded them. The match against South Africa in Perth will be a good game. It is a big ground as well."

APPLYING PRESSURE

With the bowlers basing their game plans on the bigger side of the ground, the majority of the balls are naturally expected to be played in the region. It leads to high-intensity running between the wickets. Putting pressure on batters for the twos and threes is going to be the focus.

Cutting those angles will be the key. "You have to run in straight lines, you can’t keep going in circles around the boundary line. You should know exactly how far you are from the boundary line in terms of the size of the ground, based on the available data, based on your strength. Awareness is the absolute key for every fielder because the minute you change your fielding position after one over, the strategy could be a little different as a fielder. You should be aware of what strategy you are on, based on the positions -- whether you are square, whether you are straight."

PARTNERSHIPS

The fielding guru said it will also be about working in partnerships, combining on the boundary line for things like relay throws. One of the finest examples of working in partnerships was provided by India when Shardul Thakur and Virat Kohli combined to run out Colin Munroe in a T20 international at Wellington in January 2020. Kohli, positioned half-way to the wicket, had caught Thakur’s throw from the fence and with a lightning-fast reaction produced a direct hit to run out Colin Munroe.

“Always ensure there are two fielders on the ball or if one fielder is chasing the ball, one fielder should come somewhere between the thrower and the target so they can relay the throw if there is an opportunity like Shardul and Virat did in Wellington, which is one of the best relay throws you will ever see in world cricket. So, in Australia, you will need a lot of those strategies -- two fielders on the ball as even on the boundary line there will be opportunities to palm the ball onto the fellow partner inside the rope.”

One of the super hit fielding acts has been the fielders balancing mid-air to catch the ball and throw it back inside the ground while falling over.

England’s Ben Stokes took it one step further in a recent T20I game against Australia. Sridhar said it is the combination of practice, instinct and reflexes. “You should have that instinct and intent. You should practice it then only does it become subconscious and you will be able to make an impact.”